From the organisers of the Natural Stone Show

 

 

 
Stone Awards / Competitions

Still time to enter SPAB Heritage Awards 2024
, By Clare Howcutt Kelly
Copyright
Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust

Wentworth Woodhouse won the Best Loved Award at the SPAB Heritage Awards in 2022.

The SPAB Heritage Awards will return in 2024 with five categories celebrating the best historic buildings and traditional craftspeople in the UK and Republic of Ireland. The biannual awards are organised by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) to recognise excellence across the building conservation sector. 

Anyone can enter or nominate a favourite building for the Best Loved Award, Sustainable Heritage Award and John Betjeman Award for places of worship, or an inspiring early-career craftsperson for the Building Craftsperson of the Year Award, while students and recent graduates can show off their design chops by entering the Philip Webb Award. The deadline for entries is 31 July, after which they will be reviewed by a panel of expert judges. 

In more detail, the awards are:

  • The Best Loved Award recognises and celebrates old buildings getting the maintenance they deserve, and the people looking after them. The shortlist is put to a public vote and chosen by you.
  • The Sustainable Heritage Award, sponsored by Keymer Handmade Tiles, celebrates sensitive, sympathetic and sustainable upgrades and repairs to traditional buildings.
  • The Building Craftsperson of the Year Award, sponsored by Owlsworth IJP, recognises the best up-and-coming craftspeople and builders working with historic buildings or traditional materials.
  • The John Betjeman Award celebrates the repair and conservation of places of worship.
  • The Philip Webb Award is a design competition for architecture students and recent graduates that encourages the sympathetic reuse of existing buildings. 
     

A shortlist will be announced in September, and the final winners will be revealed at the Awards Ceremony on 14 November at the Barbican Centre in London hosted by writer, presenter, broadcaster and SPAB Ambassador Kevin McCloud. The Best Loved Award will be presented by historian, presenter and social media star Alice Loxton, a.k.a. History Alice, who will also be sharing the winners with her two million followers.

The Awards Ceremony will take place during National Maintenance Week, the SPAB’s annual campaign encouraging and supporting people to undertake simple maintenance tasks to keep their buildings in good working order. Storm Bespoke Secondary Glazing are the headliner sponsors.

Kevin McCloud said: “These Awards celebrate excellence in everything I hold dear: conservation, intelligent design, sustainability and craftsmanship. I’m proud to have been a member of the SPAB nearly all my adult life. Since 1877, the SPAB has guided us through the conservation process, built a vast reservoir of expertise, and championed sensitive contemporary architecture in pursuit of the distinction between old and new." 

For more information and to enter, head to spab.org.uk/get-involved/awards. 


 

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